Customer Portal Preferences

Zoho ERP offers extensive Customer Portal configurations, so you can get it to work exactly the way you want it to for your customers.

To configure the Customer Portal:

Go to Settings from the topright corner.
Navigate to Customer Portal under Setup & Configurations.

The URL that your customers use to access the Customer Portal can be changed. To do this, you must change the Portal Name. The name that you enter here will be used to form the new portal URL.

Warning:

If you change the portal URL, customers can no longer use the old URL to access the portal. To ensure that your existing customers are aware of the new portal URL, you can go to the Customers module, select a customer, and click Resend Portal Link from their Overview screen.

You can change the Banner Message that is displayed to your customers at the top of the Home screen of the portal.

Insight:

If the banner message is left empty, the default banner message will be used.

Portal Login

In the Portal Login section, you can configure how your customers log in to the portal based on your business needs and customer base. You can choose the Default Login, which allows customers to sign in using their email address and password and optionally enable Federated Login so they can log in using supported third-party apps. Alternatively, you can enable SSO (Single Sign-On) to let customers access the portal using their existing organization credentials for a seamless login experience. These options help you provide a secure and convenient login method for your customers.

Note:

The Portal Login configured will be used for both the Customer Portal and the Vendor Portal.

Portal Preferences

This section contains preferences that determine the actions that your customers are allowed to perform from the Customer Portal.

Option	Description
Enable the portal for customers automatically	The Customer Portal will be enabled, and an invitation email will be sent to new users who complete their subscription payment via the Hosted Payment Pages.
Enable multi-factor authentication (MFA)	You can add an extra layer of security to the Customer Portal by enabling Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA). Once enabled, your customers will need to verify their identity using a one-time code from an authenticator app, in addition to their password. This helps prevent unauthorized access, even if login credentials are compromised.
Allow customers to add payment methods	Your customers will be able to add new payment methods directly from the Customer Portal. These payment methods can be used for both new and existing transactions and can also be set up for autocharge.
Prevent duplicate payments	You can prevent duplicate payments by restricting subsequent payments for invoices with pending transactions. If a payment is in progress via ACH or any other method that takes longer to process, additional payments will not be allowed. However, if the previous payment attempt fails, your customers will be able to attempt the payment again.
Allow customers to sign up to the Customer Portal	Your customers and their contacts can sign up for the Customer Portal on their own using signup links. These links will be displayed to them while making invoice payments or after completing subscription payments via the Hosted Payment Pages. A signup link will also be available on the portal’s sign-in page.
Notify me about Customer Portal activity	You will receive notifications about your customers’ activity in the Customer Portal, including payments, comments, and transaction approvals.
Send an email notification to customers when I comment on transactions	Your customers will receive email notifications whenever you comment on transactions with the Show in portal option enabled.
Allow customers to share documents	Your customers will be able to share documents, such as images and PDFs, with you directly through the Customer Portal.
Allow customers to edit their GST treatment and share documents	Your customers will be able to update their GST treatment if it is incorrect or if their business details have changed. They can also share documents, such as images and PDFs, with you directly through the Customer Portal.
Allow customers to forward documents from the portal	Your customers will be able to forward invoices and other documents to their contact persons, via the Customer Portal. This will be done via email with an attachment of the document.
Enable customers to make bulk payments for invoices	Your customers will be able to select multiple invoices and make a single payment for all the selected invoices at once, simplifying the payment process.
Allow customer reviews for my service	Your customers will be able to submit ratings and share feedback about your organization directly from the Customer Portal. These reviews are private and will be visible only to you and your organization’s users.
Allow customer to view Sales Orders	Your customers will be able to view the sales orders shared with them directly from the Customer Portal, including order details, status, and related information.
Enable customer reviews for my service	Your customers will be able to rate your organization and provide feedback from the Customer Portal. These reviews are not public and will be visible only to you and your organization’s users.
Display credit notes in the portal	Your customers will be able to view all their credit notes, along with details of the invoices they were applied to and any refunds issued, directly in the Customer Portal.
Allow customers to view projects and timesheets	Your customers will be able to access project-related information in the Customer Portal, including the project name, description, logged time, billed and unbilled hours, and the project’s fixed cost. They will also be able to view customer approvals and approve them as needed.

Saving Payment Methods

When your customers enter their account details during payment, the option Use this card/account for future transactions will be preselected or left unchecked based on your preference. You can choose whether this option should be:

Checked by default – The payment method will be saved unless the customer opts out.
Unchecked by default – The payment method will not be saved unless the customer chooses to do so.

Secure Public Links

When you share invoices, quotes or retainer invoices via public links using email, SMS or WhatsApp, anyone who has the link can access them. To protect your customers’ PII information, you can enable identity verification as an additional layer of security.

Once enabled, customers will need to verify their Email Address or Mobile Number before they can view or download the invoice or quote PDF. This verification step helps ensure only the intended recipient can access the PDF document which may contain personal information, making it especially useful when you’re sharing transactions without using the Portal.

Insight: Verification applies only to documents shared via public links, not to those accessed through the Portal.

Without verification, your customers will still be able to:

Make payments for invoices.
Accept or reject quotes, if you’ve enabled the option in quote preferences.

Note:

Enabling identity verification is optional but recommended if you frequently share invoices, retainer invoices or quotes through public links.

Subscription Management

Your customers will be able to view their subscriptions from the portal and make changes to them, based on the permissions that you’ve configured.

Trials

To configure the trial management options that you want to offer your customers in the portal:

Log in to your Zoho ERP organization.
Go to Settings from the topright corner.
Navigate to Customer Portal under Setup & Configurations.
Switch to Subscription Management tab.
Click the Trials tab at the top.

Option	Description
Extend Trials	Your customers will be able to extend trial subscriptions when they expire. You can also configure the number of trial extensions allowed.
Activate Trials Immediately	Your customers will be able to convert trial subscriptions to Live at any point during a subscription’s trial period. You can also configure whether this option applies to Auto-charge enabled and Auto-charge disabled subscriptions.

Cancellations

To configure the subscription cancellation options that you want to offer your customers in the portal:

Log in to your Zoho ERP organization.
Go to Settings from the topright corner.
Navigate to Customer Portal under Setup & Configurations.
Switch to Subscription Management tab.
Click the Cancellations tab at the top.

Option	Description
Cancel Subscriptions	Subscriptions can be cancelled from the Customer Portal, either immediately or at the end of the current term, depending on your configuration.
Reactivate Subscriptions	Subscriptions that have been cancelled or have expired can be reactivated from the Customer Portal.
Remove Scheduled Cancellations	The scheduled end-of-term cancellation can be removed for subscriptions that are non-renewing.

Pause & Resume

Prerequisite:

You must enable Pause & Resume from Subscription Preferences to be able to pause and resume subscriptions for your customers.

To configure the pause subscription options that you want to offer your customers in the portal:

Log in to your Zoho ERP organization.
Go to Settings from the top right corner.
Navigate to Customer Portal under Setup & Configurations.
Switch to Subscription Management tab.
Click the Pause & Resume tab at the top.

Option	Description
Pause Subscriptions	Your customers will be able to pause their subscriptions from the Customer Portal. Enabling this option will also provide your customers with permission to change or delete any existing pause schedules. You can configure whether subscriptions can be paused immediately, on a scheduled date, or both.
Resume Subscriptions	Your customers will be able to resume their subscriptions from the Customer Portal. Enabling this option will also provide your customers with permission to change or delete any existing resume schedules. You can configure whether subscriptions can be resumed immediately, on a scheduled date, or both.

Payments

To configure the payment and auto-charge preferences that you want to offer your customers in the portal:

Log in to your Zoho ERP organization.
Go to Settings from the topright corner.
Navigate to Customer Portal under Setup & Configurations.
Click the Payments tab at the top.

Option	Description
Toggle Autocharge	Your customers can turn autocharge on or off for their subscriptions that have a saved payment method. If a subscription is Past Due and the customer disables autocharge, the subscription status will change from Past Due to Live because automatic payment attempts will stop. However, turning autocharge back on will not automatically collect any unpaid invoices. Your customers will need to pay them manually.
Remove Associated Payment Method	Your customers can remove the payment method linked to their subscriptions. If autocharge is enabled and they remove their payment method, their subscription invoices both existing and future will not be charged automatically.

Option

Description

Toggle Autocharge

Your customers can turn autocharge on or off for their subscriptions that have a saved payment method. If a subscription is Past Due and the customer disables autocharge, the subscription status will change from Past Due to Live because automatic payment attempts will stop. However, turning autocharge back on will not automatically collect any unpaid invoices. Your customers will need to pay them manually.

Remove Associated Payment Method

Your customers can remove the payment method linked to their subscriptions. If autocharge is enabled and they remove their payment method, their subscription invoices both existing and future will not be charged automatically.

Advanced

The following preferences allow you to configure exactly what actions your customers are allowed to perform when editing subscriptions from the Customer Portal. You can also configure whether they’re allowed to make these changes based on a subscription’s status and billing mode (Auto-charge enabled/disabled).

To configure the actions that your customers can perform for such subscriptions in the portal:

Log in to your Zoho ERP organization.
Go to Settings from the topright corner.
Navigate to Customer Portal under Setup & Configurations.
Click the Advanced tab at the top.

Option	Description
Subscriptions	This option lets you configure how your customers can apply the changes they make to subscriptions. You can allow changes to be saved immediately, at the end of the current term (scheduled), or both.
Remove end-of-term changes	Your customers will be able to remove any changes to subscriptions that are scheduled to be applied at the end of the current term.
Plans	Your customers will be able to change their current plan, or update the quantity of their current plan, depending on your configuration.
Manage addons	This option lets your customers associate new recurring addons to their subscriptions, as well as remove any existing recurring addons, depending on your configuration.
Update Quantity	Your customers will be able to update the quantity of one-time and recurring addons that are already associated with their subscription.
Coupons	Your customers can apply a new coupon to their subscriptions, or remove an existing coupon.

Insight: After enabling the Plans, you will have to configure it for each plan individually, while creating or editing the plan.

Insight:

After enabling the Manage Addons, you will have to configure it for each addon individually, while creating or editing the addon.

Custom Tabs

You can create custom tabs to be displayed in the Customer Portal to show additional information for your customers. For example, you can use a custom tab to showcase your product catalog from your website or share special offers and important announcements.

To create a custom tab:

Go to Settings from the topright corner.
Navigate to Customer Portal under Setup & Configurations.
Switch to Custom Tabs tab.
Click + New Custom Tab at the top.
Enter the tab name and the URL that you want to display.
Click Save.

The custom tab you create will appear on the left sidebar of the Customer Portal.

Customer Fields

Your customers’ account information, such as their name and address, can be displayed in the Customer Portal. You can choose the level of access they have to various fields by setting them as Optional, Mandatory, Read-only, or Hidden based on your preferences.

To configure customer fields:

Go to Settings from the topright corner.
Navigate to Customer Portal under Setup & Configurations.
Switch to the Customer Fields tab.
Click Save after configuring the access.

If you want to hide all of the customer fields in the Customer Portal, you can disable them by clicking Disable in the top-right corner.

Custom Modules

To accommodate their business requirements, your customers may create their own modules to record information that is specific to their needs and not addressed by the default modules in Zoho ERP. These modules are referred to as Custom Modules. If your customer chooses to display custom modules of their organization in your portal, based on preferences configured, you can perform certain actions on the custom module’s records from your portal. In this section, you’ll learn what these actions are and how you can perform them.

Create a Record

If your customer has enabled the preference for you to create records for their custom module from your portal, you can create records and submit them for approval. Here’s how:

Log in to your portal.
Go to the custom module on the left sidebar.
Click + New in the top right corner.
Fill in the required details. Fill in details in the required fields.
Click Submit to send the record to your customer for approval, or click Save as Draft if the preference is enabled for the custom module.

Edit a Record

If your customer has enabled the option for you to edit records you created for their custom module, you can edit those records. Here’s how:

Log in to your portal.
Go to the custom module on the left sidebar.
Click the record you want to edit and click Edit at the top.
Make the necessary changes and click Submit.

Add Comments

If your customer has enabled the option for you to add comments to the records you created for their custom module in your portal, you can do so. Here’s how:

Log in to your portal.
Go to the custom module on the left sidebar.
Click the record for which you want to add comments and click the Comments icon in the top right corner.
Enter the comment in the text box. You can format the text using bold, italics, and underline.
Click Add Comment.